Urban Small Homes: Rethinking Long-term Care Environments for Urban Living in Toronto

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to social isolation and the neglect of basic human needs for Canadian nursing home residents. During the pandemic, deaths of Canadians aged 69 in Long Term Care Homes (LTCH) were thirteen times higher than those the same age living in other kinds of housing, indicating the architecture of this typology needs to undergo drastic changes. In Canada, LTCH have proved to be architectural and economic failures in terms of disease transmission, social isolation, and staffing burnout linked to poor work environments and dismal management culture. This thesis focuses on the architectural design of these environments and takes inspiration from new approaches to long-term care, namely the ‘Small House’ model of care. The Small House philosophy advocates for small scale households and a human-centric environment. This thesis builds on these ideas and translates them into an urban Toronto context. This thesis considers the design of the inside and outside of the LTCH in terms of sensory qualities, human scale, connection to nature and materials; prioritizes resident social interactions and views; and creates housing that has strong relationships to city life and community. The project is an urban ‘small home’ for Toronto, with a mix of uses that encourages visitors and considers a LTCH as a part of the urban fabric.